Traditional fabrication methods use one or more reusable template components to shape many identical copies of a part. For example, injection molding forms plastic parts within a reusable mold that defines the exterior surface of each part. Although template components enable economical manufacturing of each part, the template component itself is expensive to manufacture because it must be durable enough to shape many (often thousands) of parts. Thus, template components add overhead costs to traditional forming methods.
To alleviate the overhead costs of traditional forming methods, additive manufacturing methods may be used to form parts without template components. For example, three-dimensional (3D) printing techniques form parts by sequentially depositing the layers of a part. Additive manufacturing methods can thus reduce overhead costs by obviating the need for template components. However, additive manufacturing still entails overhead costs such as labor to configure manufacturing settings. In 3D printing, a part may be oriented in one of several directions that affect the number and size of printed layers. Where parts are small enough for a 3D printer to print multiple copies simultaneously, the part orientation also affects the number of copies the 3D printer may print at a time. Additionally, the part orientation influences the amount and shape of auxiliary material used to support overhanging surfaces of the part. These numerous interconnected factors that influence manufacturing settings necessitate skilled labor that adds to overhead costs of additive manufacturing.